U.S. Carries Out ’85 Percent’ Of Coalition Airstrikes By Itself

Although there is a coalition of 11 countries joined together to carry out airstrikes against ISIS, the US is carrying out those strikes by itself “85 percent” of the time.

Details from a Pentagon report indicate the US has carried out “819 strikes”–since such airstrikes began in Iraq on August 8–and the other 10 countries in the coalition have carried out a total of 157.

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According to Fox News, the airstrike coalition consists of the US, “France, Belgium, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom…Bahrain, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates.” The US refuses to release documentation on the accuracy of strikes against ISIS and “US Central Command did not respond…[to questions on] why the US flies the vast majority of the sorties.”

Heritage Foundation defense expert Dakota Wood explained that a number of the countries in the coalition “could have joined…the effort under limited rules of engagement.” This would allow them to play a large supportive role, but prevent them from carrying out the actual airstrikes. Wood pointed to the Arab nations as an example, saying they “might not be willing to attack vehicles because such a strike would kill a lot of fighters.”

Seventeen more airstrikes were carried out against ISIS on November 26. However, US Central Command “did not provide a breakdown on which countries flew the missions.”

On October 31–a date by which the US had already carried out more than 600 airstrikes–Breitbart News reported that the US airstrike campaign was not slowing ISIS recruitment. And one day prior–on October 30–Breitbart News reported that ISIS now has more land, money, and fighters than Al Qaeda did on 9/11.